California jobless rate climbs to 10.5 percent

Dean Calbreath

The jobless rate in California soared to 10.5 percent last month, as the state lost 116,000 jobs spanning nearly every sector of employment, according to data released Friday by the California Employment Development Department.

It is the highest unemployment rate since the recession of the 1980s and economists say it seems poised to top the 1982 high of 11 percent, which was the state's highest jobless rate since the Great Depression.

Steven Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, said he expects unemployment to continue rising for at least six months, even if federal stimulus efforts are successful.

“The longer term outlook obviously depends on the success of national policies to boost employment and stabilize the housing and banking sectors,” he said.

The biggest job losses came in construction, which lost 30,900 jobs; employment services (mainly temporary workers), 29,600; retail, trade and utilities, 16,900; and leisure and hospitality, 14,800; and real estate and finance, 7,200.

Out of the 11 broad categories of payroll workers maintained by the state, only one gained jobs: information – which includes publishing, telecommunications and broadcasting – added 7,900 workers.

In San Diego County, the unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in February, compared with a revised 8.7 percent the month before and 5.0 percent in February 2008, not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. The county lost 2,700 jobs between January and February, with most of the losses concentrated in retail and manufacturing.

San Diego has at least temporarily regained its status of performing slightly better than the national jobless rate, which was 8.9 percent in February, not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, or 8.1 percent with seasonal adjustments.

Phil Blair, who oversees the local operations of the Manpower employment agency, said he was “pleasantly surprised” to see that the growth of local unemployment seems to be leveling off.

“To go from 8.7 percent to 8.8 percent is almost a rounding error, although it's painful to see that unemployment was just 5 percent last year,” he said. “I don't know if we've hit a plateau, but at least our employment decline seems to be slowing.”

Blair said that from his perspective, the downward pressure on jobs seems to be leveling off locally, after rising dramatically over the past year.

“I'm starting to see business picking up,” he said. “Just this week, I got an order for 100 (temporary) workers from a medical technology company.”